The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has called on the IoT industry to bolster the defences of IoT devices through the use of cryptography. NIST’s efforts to protect the data created by IoT devices are part of its new “lightweight cryptography” initiative.

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has called on the IoT industry to bolster the defences of IoT devices through the use of cryptography.

NIST’s efforts to protect the data created by IoT devices – and the wider security of IoT networks – form part of its new “lightweight cryptography” initiative. This demands the creation of new algorithms and techniques that can work on simple, low-power circuits.

The challenge is that many IoT devices in particular use negligible electrical power, and circuitry that is far more limited than even the chips found in simple phones, but common encryption methods typically demand more resources than that.